Hey TPT sellers ready to see growth in your business? You’re in the right place. Welcome to the savvy teacher seller. I’m Kristen Doyle. And I’m here to give you no fluff tools and strategies that will really make an impact on your sale. Let’s get started y’all.
Hey, hey, seller friends. Today, I want to tackle a common issue that a lot of TPT sellers face. And that is that we tend to quite frequently get a product almost done and then we never get around to finishing and actually posting it on TPT, so that it can sell.
I probably have dozens of half done resources in my own files on my computer. But most of those are older. These days, once a resource is done, I really try hard to go ahead and get it posted as soon as possible. And I do that even if it’s a seasonal product, because products can’t start selling if they’re not in your store.
And once they start to sell even if they’re out of season, and they’re just selling a little bit, that helps them to build momentum, and it helps them to move up in search. Now, there are a ton of reasons that we sellers sometimes leave products half finished.
Sometimes it is things like perfectionism, or lack of confidence in our product, maybe life just gets in the way. But according to my Instagram followers, and if you’re one of the sellers who voted, thank you, according to them, it really boils down to those last two things that you need to create: the preview and the thumbnails.
I’m gonna give you some ideas for conquering all of those in today’s episode. So let’s get right to it. Let’s start with perfectionism and finding your confidence so that you can overcome that perfectionism. So it was really important to remember that progress is more important than perfection, and that it is okay if your product isn’t 100% Perfect.
Now, don’t hear me saying that you should post a product that hasn’t been proof read and have lots of errors. But I know for most of us, if you are struggling with perfectionism, your product is probably already really amazing. And it’s those last couple of little details like you keep nudging that one title over a pixel or two, or you keep playing with the font that’s on it or adjusting sizes of things.
And it’s those little bits that keep us from finishing the project and getting that product posted. Keep in mind that your work is incredibly valuable, even if it is not 100% perfect. Even if there are a few things you would still like to tweak or change or add.
As long as your product has been for Fred is accurate is educationally sound, which I know all of our products are, you are still helping teachers. And you can always come back and revise that product a little bit later on.
Remember that Done is better than perfect. That is an old saying I know that can seem kind of trite and overused. But I tell myself that all the time. Done is better than perfect. Because perfect in my life anyway, is probably never gonna happen. So the best I can do is do a good job and get it done.
Put yourself in a new teacher shoes. Is your product in its current state going to help them do their job better? Is it going to save them less than planning time at home on a Friday night? Is it educationally solid? And it’s going to provide a good experience for their students? If you can answer yes to those, then it is a great product. And you should be proud to post it even if there are still a few things you want to tweak over time.
Now I have been raving for the last couple of weeks about Mikey Sivert’s conference session on conquering impostor syndrome. If you haven’t watched it and you have a virtual ticket, I would really encourage you to watch that session. I cannot tell you enough how much I got out of it and how much I think all sellers really need to hear the things that he taught us about battling impostor syndrome.
He shared lots of strategies for quieting that voice inside that tells us we’re not good enough. And my favorite that I’ll share with you guys is to give them a name, which kind of takes them out of your head and makes them almost like a third person and then tell them to shut up.
I know that’s not teacher language we normally use. We always tell our students don’t say that. But sometimes it’s important to say shut up Laura, this is a really great product and teachers are going to be so happy to have it and their students are going to love this activity.
So try that strategy if you’re struggling a little bit with confidence and with not feeling like your product is good enough. Alright, I’ve shared that. Although a lot of us struggle with perfectionism and self confidence, really, when it comes down to it, the biggest issue for most of us is actually finishing the product itself.
So to kind of overcome that, I would encourage you to start with those least difficult or daunting tasks, and do those first to build momentum. It’s kind of a snowball effect. Once you get going on the easier things, then hopefully that will help you build momentum.
Maybe for you that means creating those answer keys, or maybe you’ve really liked covers, and you want to knock those out before you deal with the preview. I don’t know if anyone loves making previews because that was the one thing on my little Instagram survey that came up number one as the biggest thing that keeps people from posting. If you love previews, good for you!
A couple of tips for you to make this process a little easier. If you’re working on creating your answer keys, teacher notes, all of those teacher pages that you put into your product, keep some templates on hand for those that you can reuse over and over. That will save you a ton of time. And it also helps repeat buyers to use your resources easier because they’ll know exactly what to expect and where to find things.
So keep those templates on hand that you can just copy and paste them swap out content for that helps a ton with getting those pages done quickly. Like I said, though, the biggest hang up that most of you guys told me that you have is with your covers your thumbnails and your previews. And that makes sense because they feel really important.
And sometimes we’re just not quite sure what to put on them. Covers are a big deal. Absolutely. But I would say that previews are arguably the most important part of your product listing. So definitely don’t skimp on those.
TPT says that 62% of teachers they surveyed say the preview is the number one factor in their purchase decision on your product. So make sure you are doing a great job on those. Now my favorite tool for creating eye catching professional looking covers and previews is Canva. Hands down.
I’m not a big fan of using Canva for my products, because I don’t love the way that it handles text heavy documents. But there is something about it that makes those images and the previews look so much more professional than what I would make if I did it myself in PowerPoint or Keynote. And I don’t know what it is. But it just looks so much more polished and professional.
And when it comes to creating these, using consistent fonts, colors and graphics, different elements you might pull in or layouts you might use on all of your thumbnails and previews makes that creation process go so much faster. The fewer design decisions you have to make, the faster you’ll get this done.
Not to mention, consistent fonts and colors are going to help you build brand recognition. And that is good for your buyers too.
And once again, I will say use templates. I cannot tell you how much time I save by having a template ready to go that I can just pull from when I get ready to create the covers and the previews for my products. Yes, it means you’re being a little less creative, you’re not creating something brand new and unique for every product.
But it helps you get that product posted lots faster so it can start selling and you get to keep using layout to know are already working well instead of trying something brand new and not knowing how it’s going to convert.
So what I like to do is open up a brand new Canva document in the right size for my preview or my thumbnails, and then open up some of the old ones that I’ve created and copy in the layouts that I really love. And I call this my master template. I have one for covers and thumbnails and I have one for previews.
And then when I get ready to make a new one for a new product, all I have to do is open up my blank file and open up my template file and just copy and paste the pages that I want. It’s sort of a mix and match kind of system. But it saves me a ton of time because I’ve got layouts already done.
I’ve got those elements I like to use already in the right size images are there for page screenshots that I’m dropping in. And it just helps me so much to pull from those templates that I already have.
Now if you are struggling to know what to put in your previews, covers and thumbnails, and I know a lot of you are because several people messaged me on Instagram, especially about previews. I do have some Canva templates in my TPT store that can help you. You’ll find the links for those in the show notes for this episode at Kristendoyle.co/episode 58.
And those templates include lots of little prompts and tips about what you should be saying on each page and what kind of images you should be including and things like that and it’s all based on the format thing that I’ve been testing out and that I’ve found converts best.
Alright friends, it is time to quit stalling and post your product. Remember, it’s all about progress, not perfection. Spend a few minutes compiling your best layouts from your cover thumbnails and previews into a master template that you can pull from.
And if you need some templates to help you go to those show notes, and check out the ones that I have available. And then find one of those unfinished products that is sitting in your folder somewhere and get it posted.
Back to school season is here, already right now. So every single product that is sitting on your desktop instead of posted in your store is a missed opportunity for sales. And it’s a teacher who won’t be able to benefit from the thing you created that might be exactly what they need for their classroom right now.
When you post that product, send me a DM on Instagram and let me know I want to celebrate with you. You can do this friend. I’ll talk to you soon.
I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you did, please share it with another teacher seller who would also find it helpful. For more resources on growing your TPT business, head to Kristindoyle.co/TPT. Talk to you soon.
